SLA's judgment day / Four members of radical '70s group plead guilty in deadly bank robbery

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2002-11-08 04:00:00 PDT Sacramento -- California's last big case from the fractious days of radical rage nearly 30 years ago ended Thursday when four members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, now graying, well-coiffed and contrite, pleaded guilty to murdering a 42-year-old woman during a bank robbery in 1975.

Montague will serve eight years, Harris seven and Bortin and Olson six each.

They are due to be sentenced Feb. 14. Harris, Montague and Bortin are free on bail.

Olson, who is now 55, is already serving a 14-year sentence after pleading guilty in January to charges of attempting to murder Los Angeles police officers in 1975 by attaching bombs to their patrol cars.

In court Thursday, Montague, on the verge of tears, said, "there has not been a day in the last 27 years that I have not thought of Mrs. Opsahl and the tragedy I brought on her family."

In fact, all the defendants apologized. "I say that from the bottom of my heart," said William Harris. And Olson said, "I never entered that bank with the intent of harming anyone. I am truly sorry and I will be sorry until the day I die."

Bortin said he was devastated and very ashamed about taking part in the robbery and murder.

While Montague, Harris and Olson read from carefully worded statements neatly typed on white paper, Bortin spoke extemporaneously, offering a rambling account of the robbery and an apology for the killing. He spoke haltingly, as if searching for the right words to express himself.

"I know it doesn't mean much to this family to say I'm sorry," he said. "I can't imagine how horrible it must feel."

Montague looked matronly, dressed in a conservative brown wool suit and a white turtleneck sweater. Harris wore a black suit, his blow-dried gray hair neatly coiffed and his shoes smartly shined. Olson shuffled into the courtroom in chains, wearing baggy orange prison-issue pants and a yellow shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal the shackles around her wrists.

Only Bortin looked anything like the radical he once was, with his disheveled curly hair and a beard bordered by several day's stubble. He wore jeans, a gray long-sleeved shirt and running shoes.

After the court session, Sacramento District Attorney Jan Scully said she agreed to the plea bargains because she knew prosecutors Robert Gold and Mark Curry had a tough case that they very well could lose.

"We faced substantial evidentiary and procedural hurdles because of the age of the case," she said.

Among the problems was the fading memories of witnesses -- an issue of such concern that the defense had petitioned the court to allow videotaped testimony from some witnesses. At least one witness is reported to have died recently.

Gold also said the pleas were spurred in part by the fact that the former radicals have, by all accounts, led rather mundane suburban lives in the years since and pose little threat to the public.

As for the defense, attorney Tony Serra said defense attorneys and prosecutors made repeated "reciprocal probes" exploring the possibility of a plea bargain to avoid a trial.

But little came of the talks, several sources said, until after the state Board of Prison Terms increased Olson's sentence on Oct. 16 for the attempted murder of Los Angeles police officers from five to 14 years.

"Everyone waited to see what happened to Sara Jane," Serra said. "We were geared up for a full prosecution."

Sources said the defendants were interested in a deal but did not want to plead guilty if the Board of Prison Terms was going to increase their sentences after the fact.

But then prosecutors said they would allow a conditional deal that would allow the former radicals to back out of any plea bargain and proceed to trial should that occur.

"We feel we're completely protected," Serra said.

Resolution of the Carmichael murder case, by all accounts, only came about because of the efforts of Michael Latin and Eleanor Hunter, the two Los Angeles deputy district attorneys who prosecuted Olson.

Latin and Hunter spent years trying to convince the Sacramento authorities that the Carmichael case was worth prosecuting.

In Los Angeles Thursday, District Attorney Steve Cooley said of the pleas, "I'm tremendously proud of the work done by Los Angeles district attorney prosecutors, investigators and Los Angeles police that laid the groundwork for the filing of this case in Sacramento. Their fine work here in Los Angeles was instrumental in bringing this matter to a close for the families of the victims of the SLA and for the people of the state of California."

At a press conference after the deal was struck in court, Myrna Opsahl's widower cried as he thanked Scully and the law enforcement officials who pursued the case. Trygve Opsahl, now a 76-year-old retired surgeon, said Thursday had been a day of powerful -- and mixed -- emotions.

"We're happy this has drawn to a conclusion, and we don't have this hanging over us anymore," he said, as his son Jon consoled him.

Jon Opsahl said prosecutors had called him late Wednesday afternoon to tell him they were close to a deal. He said he would have preferred all four defendants receive a stiffer sentence, but seeing them stand up in court and admit their crime was what he wanted most.

"We always had wanted the truth to be known," said Opsahl, who called Thursday a surreal day. He noted he hadn't been looking forward to an extended trial.

He said he didn't know if the four were sincere in their apologies to his family and said it didn't matter all that much.

The SLA became infamous for the kidnapping of 19-year-old newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who was abducted from her Berkeley apartment on the night of Feb. 4, 1974.

In the ensuing months, the SLA converted her to their radical ways to the extent that the public next saw her in photos from a bank surveillance camera, brandishing a gun during an April 1974 robbery of a Hibernia Bank branch in San Francisco.

She stayed with the SLA, robbing banks and eluding hundreds of FBI agents until she was captured in San Francisco Sept. 18, 1975.

Kilgore, wanted on federal explosives charges as well as the murder charge, has been a fugitive since 1975, so exasperating the FBI that as recently as April, 2001, a top FBI official in San Francisco said bitterly, "he has disappeared quite effectively."

But The Chronicle has learned from sources close to the case that as part of the overall plea agreement, Kilgore has agreed to come in from the cold and plead guilty as well. It was not clear Thursday when this might happen or who was the go-between who helped negotiate the deal.

The murder charges stem from the April 21, 1975, robbery of a branch of Crocker National Bank in the Sacramento suburb of Carmichael.

During the robbery, Myrna Lee Opsahl, a 42-year-old customer who was depositing church receipts collected that weekend was shotgunned to death.

Four robbers in the bank fled. They were later identified as Emily Harris, Bortin, Kilgore and Olson (then known as Kathy Soliah). Outside the bank were William Harris and Steven Soliah and waiting nearby in getaway cars were Patricia Hearst and Wendy Yoshimura.

Hearst, Steven Soliah and Yoshimura were eventually given immunity from prosecution in return for their testimony before a Sacramento County grand jury in 1990.

For those who have been living with this case for nearly 30 years, there were varying sighs of relief or, at least, acknowledgment that, for the most part, it's finished.

In Connecticut, Hearst, the touchstone for the SLA's infamy in the first place, said, through her attorney, George Martinez, "I'm gratified that this matter is finally concluded and this 28-year saga in my life is over."

After Hearst was caught, tried, convicted and imprisoned for her role in the Hibernia Bank robbery -- her sentence was ultimately commuted by President Jimmy Carter and she was pardoned by President Bill Clinton -- she wrote a book about her life and times with the SLA called "Every Secret Thing" (1982).

For years afterward, whenever various SLA members were asked about the eight detailed pages she wrote about Carmichael, they laughed and said it was a figment of her imagination.

Bortin told the Chronicle in January 2001, "Maybe that book is just full of s--." Additionally, even federal authorities who prosecuted SLA associate Steven Soliah in 1976 in connection with the Carmichael robbery had doubts about Hearst's tale and about her value as a witness. So they didn't put her on the stand.

On Thursday, Hearst, in a rare discussion of the case that has forever colored her life, said, after her version of events was vindicated in Sacramento court by the SLA members' abject confessions and apologies to the Opsahl family, "I'm particularly gratified that finally the truth is being acknowledged in open court."

Martinez, her attorney, said that for decades "the government has been questioning her veracity and . . . has continued to attack her credibility."

THE SLA

The Symbionese Liberation Army was formed in early 1973 when Donald DeFreeze escaped from the California State Prison in Vacaville and made his way to the East Bay. He eventually joined up with a group called the Black Cultural Association, where he became fast friends with future SLA members Willie Wolfe, Russell Little and Patricia Soltysik. The SLA burst on the scene Nov. 6, 1973, when members murdered Oakland school's Superintendent Marcus Foster and, on Feb. 4, 1974, when they kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst.

THE CASE

Thursday's pleas originate with the April 21, 1975, slaying of Sacramento housewife Myrna Lee Opsahl during the robbery of a bank in Carmichael. Opsahl was depositing receipts from the weekend's church services. Inside the bank, she was fatally wounded when a shotgun held by admitted robber Emily Harris (now Emily Montague) was fired. For decades, nothing happened. Then two Los Angeles prosecutors, dealing with another SLA case, discovered enough evidence to persuade Sacramento authorities to file murder charges.

THE DEAL

Under the plea negotiations worked out between Sacramento County prosecutors and defense attorneys, the defendants will serve sentences ranging from six to eight years. Although Emily Montague, William Harris and Michael Bortin could be free in as little as three years, defense attorney Stuart Hanlon said the decision will rest with the prisons where they serve their time. Each defendant is prepared to serve the full term, at which point they will be placed on parole for one year. The deal also prohibits the former radicals from profiting from their crimes through books, television programs, films and the like. Sources said that point is particularly important to the Opsahl family.

THE FUGITIVE

The only loose end to the Carmichael slaying case is James Kilgore. He is the fifth defendant and has been a fugitive on federal explosives charges for more than 25 years. Kilgore is expected to turn himself in, plead guilty and serve a prison sentence similar to the ones handed down Thursday, according to sources close to the case.

SAGA OF THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY

Nov. 6, 1973: Oakland schools Superintendent Marcus Foster is slain, and his assistant, Robert Blackburn, is wounded. Two members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, Joseph Remiro and Russell Little, are eventually caught, tried and convicted. Remiro is serving a life sentence. After a successful appeal, Little is retried and acquitted.

April 15, 1974: Hearst and her SLA comrades rob a branch of the Hibernia Bank in San Francisco.

May 17, 1974: Police surround a house in Los Angeles. Inside are six members of the SLA. When they refuse to surrender, a gunfight erupts and the house is set on fire. All six SLA members die. Bill and Emily Harris and Hearst, watching live coverage on a motel TV, go deep underground.

April 21, 1975: The SLA robs the Carmichael branch of Crocker National Bank. During the robbery, 42-year-old Myrna Lee Opsahl, a bank customer, is shot dead.

Aug. 21-22, 1975: Pipe bombs are placed under two Los Angeles police cars. They do not explode.

Sept. 18, 1975: San Francisco police and the FBI find SLA safe houses on Precita Avenue and Morse Street and arrest Hearst, the Harrises, Wendy Yoshimura and Steven Soliah. The Harrises eventually serve eight years in prison for the Hearst kidnapping. Kathleen Soliah becomes a fugitive.

March 20, 1976: Hearst is convicted in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in the Hibernia Bank robbery. She is later sentenced to seven years in prison.

April 27, 1976: Steven Soliah is acquitted in federal court in Sacramento in the Carmichael bank robbery.

Feb. 1, 1979: President Jimmy mmutes Hearst's sentence, and she is released after serving 21 months.

June 16, 1999: Kathleen Soliah, living under the name of Sara Jane Olson, is captured in St. Paul, Minn.

Jan. 20, 2001: President Bill Clinton pardons Hearst.

Oct. 31, 2001: Olson pleads guilty to two counts of trying to bomb Los Angeles police cars with intent to murder. The court refuses her later attempt to reverse the plea

Jan. 16, 2002: William Harris, Emily Montague (formerly Emily Harris), Michael Bortin and Olson are arrested and charged in Opsahl's murder. James Kilgore, a fugitive, is also charged.

Jan. 18, 2002: Olson is sentenced in Los Angeles Superior Court to 20 years to life in prison on bombing charges and, minutes later, is arraigned on the Opsahl murder charges. Her attorneys say she could be paroled in just over five years.

Nov. 7, 2002: Harris, Montague, Bortin and Olson plead guilty to second- degree murder in connection with the April 21, 1975, slaying of Opsahl. Kilgore is still at large.